Rev. Tom Eggleston
Minister of Music
Rev. Tom Eggleston was born in Port Sulphur, Louisiana. He received his high school diploma at Prytania Private High School in New Orleans, LA; his Bachelor of Music Education degree from William Carey University in Hattiesburg, MS; and a Master of Church Music degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Tom has been happily married to Delores since 1978. She is a former teacher; Deacon; Executive Director of Social Agency; missionary; State Director for WV State Convention for Southern Baptists; a retired Chaplain (for 16 years); a licensed minister; Sunday School Teacher; a wonderful mother and grandmother; and attended the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival. Their son, Travis, and his wife, Clare, have two children, Maggie and Reece. Tom’s mother, Jan, and sister, Judy, moved to Athens in 2017 to be closer.
Tom has had a varied career which includes a national position as National Missionary for Special Events and Creative Arts with the North American Mission Board; a state position as Assoc. Director for Music and Worship with the South Carolina Baptist Convention; and local positions as Minister of Music in Louisville, Kentucky; Morgantown, West Virginia; Conyers, Georgia; Lancaster, South Carolina and began serving at Milledge Ave Baptist Church in Athens, GA on November 2, 2014. Tom’s first anthem was published in 1977. He has had many anthems published with Word Music, Lillenas Music, LifeWay Music, and Shawnee Press. A recent anthem, “A Place of Love and Grace” published with Shawnee in 2014 won an Editor’s Choir award from JW Pepper Music. In 2010, the hymn, “I Gaze Upon the Wondrous Cross” was included in the Celebrating Grace Hymnal. For many years, Tom has had an anthem website: www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/tomeggleston, with 200+ anthems, songs, hymns in 40 categories.
His areas of interest include composing original anthems, hymns, songs, hymn arranging; children’s songs and stories; playing the ocarina (a globular flute), piano, trumpet; balloon sculpting; hula hooping; and babysitting his grandkids.
